Global climate risk solutions platform, Arbol, has announced that insurance-linked securities and parametric insurance expert, Hector Ibarra, has joined the company as Vice Chairman of LATAM.
Ibarra holds more than two decades of experience driving market development efforts across the financial industry, including parametric risk transfer products.
Most recently, he served as CEO of Global Parametrics, where he established a corporate mandate to leverage climate science, data modelling, and financial engineering to build tools that could understand and mitigate the risks of extreme weather and natural disasters.
Ibarra also served as the Portfolio Manager of the Natural Disaster Fund (NDF), an ESG-focused insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund.
Before Global Parametrics, Ibarra worked as Lead Financial Officer at the World Bank, where he placed over $1 billion in disaster risk financing products.
Additionally, he has previously served as Assistant Vice President of ILS at PartnerRe.
Ibarra commented, “I’m excited to join a company that is paving the way for the future of impactful parametric insurance on a global scale. As the world grapples with emerging climate risks and market pressures, businesses need to remain resilient.
“Arbol’s parametric products and climate risk solutions have made massive headway on this front, and I look forward to driving operations for the company in LATAM.”
Sid Jha, founder and CEO of Arbol, added, “We are thrilled to welcome a colleague who has such extensive knowledge in disaster risk financing, insurance-linked securities, parametric insurance, and more specific skills critical to the success of our company.
“Hector’s international experience in leading ESG fund managers, financial intermediaries, and multilateral agencies will be pivotal to our growth as we expand into new verticals and markets.”
In December last year, Arbol announced that its parametric reinsurance solution delivered one of the first payouts for loss or damage attributed to Hurricane Ian.
The $10 million payout to Centauri Insurance, a property and casualty insurer operating in nine U.S. states, was executed less than one month after Ian’s landfall.
